Around the World

First Job

nele186 — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:24:00 GMT

First Job: Contract Fencer

After Training at Springbrook Farm, my first job started in Mitchell, Queensland. I’m working for a contract fencer since two weeks now. The job is building fences for other farmers. If anyone needs a sheep or cattle fence, give me a call…

Most of the time, I carry heavy Pipes around, drive tractor or tie the wires up. The job is allright, not what I am here for, but we’re working for a very nice family at the moment and I learn a few things and earn quite good money, I hope.

The bigger problem about the whole thing is my employer. In my eyes a real weird guy. He lives alone with his two dogs on his property and sees himself as the centre of the world.

I’d probably be a bit weird too, living alone with two dogs. But he doesn’t seem to have many friends or a good connection to his family.

He is always dirty and looks as if he’d just break out of any mental home.

And he is talking loads of shit. Pretending he’d be smarter than everybody else, telling about his great “inventions” and how dumb other people would be, but can not even read or calculate easiest things!

During the week we stay in a caravan on the property of Don and Kim (for whom we work). At least the Caravan is parted in two “rooms” but it is very annoying being around this weirdo almost 24/7.

I’ve seen a lot of roos now, they’re hopping around almost everywhere and we already got hit by one. Yes, not we hit the roo hit us. But the car is alright and the roo hopped on…

And there are many roos lying dead on the streets. I’d say during the 50km drive to the job at least 20 dead roos.

Emus are a lot around, too alive as well as ran over. And I’ve seen an echidna and today my first possum. Cute little things J Ivi played with it and it was obviously hurt so Ross (my employer) picked it up and put it into a box with some milk, water, fruits and vegetables to see if it’ll survive the night.

In the first week we had dinner with Don, Kim and Sam at Cedarvale, where we are working. Sam (Samantha^^) is 19 and has been to Europe, going to school in England and visited a few other countries. Her older sister Jesse is in South America right now. It was very good to talk to someone of the same age again and she’s not one of the typical “country kids” here who have never travelled any further than to Brisbane. Was a very good evening and Don and Kim are very nice and laid back, typical Australian I think.

On Sunday, the same week we were at the 80^th Birthday party of Ross’ mother. It was a lot more fun than it sounds :-D

I met a girl from Netherlands who is working for Garry a Contract Musterer for whom Ross’ Brother works too. She’s here since March and probably going to stay until March next year. But she’s studying and this work is part of her study and she does not get paid.

She had made the same experiences I made and we had the same opinion about the Australian people and life in the rural areas: people are very nice and friendly, interested in what you’re doing here, helpful and absolutely laid back!

Oh and I think I didn’t tell about the nice other animals I met at work. In the caravan there was a spider bigger than my hand and in the same night two frogs were sitting in the toilet. Disturbing, the Australian animals…

I am going to start my second job in two weeks. It’ll be for contract cattle musterers working around Normanton, so it’s a long journey ahead. The job sounds as hard as interesting and I’ll probably won’t write for a longer time, cause we’re going to be on Camp Out most of the time and I have no idea when there is the chance to use internet.

Springbrook Farm

nele186 — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:14:00 GMT

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Springbrook Farm

Monday, 07.06.2010

So today, my journey finally takes me to Goomeri and Springbrook Farm. Two Guys from England took the same Greyhound to Gympie and there are a few more people joining us.

We’re nine people in Goomeri: Holly (England) and Krystin (Germany) are going to Justin and Lyndal’s Farm to do some horsework. Tom and Ben (England), Paul, Jens and Lida (Germany), Freddy (France) and me are going to Springbrook Farm. After finishing the paperwork and “shopping” we meet our trainers at Springbrook. It’s Karen and Daryl who have their own property of 90 acres a few kilometres away.

We’re having our first motorbike lesson and are driving round the “garden” until it gets dark.

The dinner at 7pm is cooked by Juliet (Namibian), just as it is to be done the following days. Angus (Scottish) is lighting a fire and we’re watching “Inglorious Basterds”.

Tuesday, 08.06.2010

Our day starts at 8:30am when Daryl and Karen arrive. We had breakfast before and are ready to work. We get split into two groups. Lida, Paul, Freddy and Beth (England, arriving at Lunchtime) go with Karen and start with tractor driving and chainsaw operation in the afternoon. Me, Ben, Tom and Jens are going to go horseback riding with Daryl. We’re making our way along the fences and having a great view of the beautiful property: that’s just what I’m here for! It is time to have a chat with Daryl and we’re talking about what job I’d like to do. My hope to get a job on a cattle farm grows. It sounds just perfect.

My horse Fungus seems to be a bit lazy and we don’t get our horses into a throttle for more than a few metres. But it was just amazing.

After lunch, we’re going motor biking. Off road and up and down the hills. Completely different from what I’ve done at Marek’s garden or what we did the day before.

It is so much fun, but really scary at the same time. The “roads” are very rocky and during the whole tour every one of us fell at least once. There is a really steep hill that none of us (except Daryl) made in the first try and as I made it up in my second try he said “I know only three girls who got up here”. Yes I am proud of me and I have to show off with it :-D!

But I slipped away on one rocky section before so I got some really bad bruisers from that day as well!

Wednesday, 09.06.2010

Now it’s our turn to do the tractor driving and chain sawing. It is not as cool as Tuesday but we learn a lot. And all the stuff you can/have to do with the tractor is really confusing. Driving is easy, when you can drive a car. But all the lifting up of the fork or any machines… And driving with a machine in the back is the same as driving a car with trailer, but that’s not the easiest thing when you never did it before. At least we all moved the hay bales the way we were told.

Our whole group was a bit scared before the chain sawing but it was much easier than we all thought. And we wore some safety gears such as protection pants and helmet. All looked like lumber jacks…

And another “highlight” of the day was lunch at Dan and Joanna’s house. Wow, what a nice view. Their house is on the same property but it is on the top of a small hill and the view is just wonderful. Unfortunately I took my camera neither to dinner nor to one of our lessons so I can’t show you this wonderful landscape.

Oh and what you should know is that “Lunch” is Sandwiches and sometimes sausages and Dinner is the real meal of the day. I think one of the reasons is the heat in the summer so you don’t want to eat a huge meal at midday and you don’t need a digestion break.

Thursday, 10.06.2010

We start with a fencing lesson. What I could not tell on that Thursday is that what we did is totally different from what a contract fencer does. But I’ll talk about that later.

Our fencing lesson was not bad. We put up 50 metres of cattle fence…. What means steel pegs every few metres and four strips of barbed wire. We did it all manual; hammering the steel pegs in the ground, strain the wire. It was okay for this lesson but I think a whole day would kill you ;-).

In the afternoon we had the choice between Horse exercise and motor biking to collect the firewood we cut the day before. I chose the horse work because I got the opportunity to get a cattle mustering job on horseback and I hoped to improve my riding skills. I will need them in that job. Unfortunately we didn’t go riding but longed two of the horses. That was interesting as well, so no loss at all.

Friday, 11.06.2010

So today is the big day: we muster the cattle, some of us on horses and some on motorbikes. The only “problem”: The cattle on Springbrook get mustered every Friday. So our job was not really hard, we didn’t have to chase the cattle as it is usual on big cattle farms, because the cattle there see human beings only every three or six months.

But the nice calm Springbrook cattle made their way to the yard and we just followed on our horses. On our way to the cattle Beth started galloping with her horse and all the other horses joined in. That was really scary because all the boys were total beginners on horses and I’m not professional at all. The whole thing got out of control and it probably was just luck that nobody fell off his horse. I rode another horse (Roman) who was very strong and I needed much more power to stop him or make him go where I wanted him to go.

In the yard we tagged 10 male calves and branded and castrated one. I think it was very interesting but the boys were all obviously hurt by watching the castration. Angus wanted to cook the testicles for dinner but I think he forgot it, so we had just steak for dinner and that was very good.

Saturday, 12.06.2010

At 9:00am the small Pursers bus arrived and took us the four hours way to the Brisbane Transit Centre. We all went into a hostel few minutes from the transit centre. The “Tin Billy’s”. Not bad for a hostel, a bit too big in my eyes (four floors) and not very familiar, but clean and with bathroom in each room. We were nine people and got split in 3 different rooms. Beth, Tom and Ben were in room 29, Krystin, Jens and Paul in room 26 and Freddy and me in room 34. Unfortunately the English people weren’t seen after check in. I tried to activate my Australian sim card. Not as easy as it sounds and I had a really pissed, stressed and fucked hour in which I tried to call my parents. No good idea cause they were naturally worried when the heard my nice message on their voice mail… well shit happens!

I found the other three Germans and they helped so I finally got my mobile phone started. We went with Freddy down to Brisbane River and had a good Dinner in a nice Italian Restaurant.

When we got back to the hostel I watched “Because I said so” with three very cool girls who lived in the same room. A great evening after this fucked day! We had probably the cleanest and best room compared to 26 but the night was not over yet.

I went to bed early because the Greyhound to my first employer was going to leave at 7:30am. At half past midnight our last roommate, a guy from Taiwan came home and had obviously one drink more than he can take. He fell out of his bed (the one under mine) at 1 am and started puking on the carpet and his suitcase. Of course our whole room was awake, turned the light on, and got a guy from the reception. As Danny was not even able to speak the guy from the hostel called the ambulance. When the first-aid men arrived Danny recovered pretty fast. So they left him at the hostel, he had to take a shower get back in his bed someone cleaned the floor. I think I fell asleep again at 2:30 or 3:00. As you can imagine I was not very fit when my alarm clocked rang at 6:30am. I had to take a shower in another room cause our shower was still full of puke and I almost missed my bus. What a night.

Rainbow Beach

nele186 — Sun, 6 Jun 2010 18:24:00 GMT

Today, I'm writing from Rainbow Beach.

It's my third and last day here. I've had some really cool roommates who just left this morning. They all had already been in Australia for a few months and told me of their experiences. There's much waiting for me.

It's hard to believe but all australiens are freezing while I'm sitting here in shorts and top. I went swimming in the ocean this morning and the water feels even warmer than in German summer.

There are kakadus (not sure how to spell) sitting in the palms in front of our small balcony.

And I drank my first Pints here, not as bad as I was told in Germany. Oh but there's another weird drink, it's called goone and it's a sort of wine mixture. Tastes quite bad but gets you drunk fast.

Well tomorrow I'm leaving Rainbow Beach and travel to my hostfarm for five days. I'm really excited and hope that I'm going to meet some more Visitozzers at Gympie or Goomeri.

Goodbye

Brisbane

nele186 — Fri, 4 Jun 2010 21:16:00 GMT

So I finally got to Brisbane. Stayed there not even for 24 hours but I took a walk around city and it is really beautiful. Oh and it's so nice weather here. All Australiens are freezing, in something about twenty degrees and sunshine.

The Yellow Submarine Hostel in Brisbane is really nice. Small and a familiar atmosphere and I slept very well even though the metro is running like 20m from my window.

At all a beautiful city and many friendly people.

Photos: Brisbane

nele186 — Fri, 4 Jun 2010 12:15:00 GMT

Sydney Airport

nele186 — Thu, 3 Jun 2010 06:27:00 GMT

Hello, and another short text from me. After 20hours I landed in Sydney at 5:10am. Unfortunately, my just met friends are going to stay here, so I am sitting alone in the international airport, waiting about 5 hours till my flight to Brisbane starts. As you can imagine at right now 6:30 am even the Sydney Airport is not really crowded and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my loads of time. Well, we'll see :-) I'm already looking forward to the shower in Yellow Submarine Hostel in Brisbane. Bye and see you later.

Singapore

nele186 — Wed, 2 Jun 2010 20:37:00 GMT

So this is going to be another very short story.

We just got to singapore airpot and have at least 45min time. I bought the right adapter finally :-)

But thats one of the reasons why I really have to go soon.

I'm well, met some really nice people at frankfurt airport and on the plane.

Singapore has 31 degrees and I think the airconditioning in the airport ain't much colder.

Well now I have to check in again. You'll hear me :-)

Photos: Airport

nele186 — Wed, 2 Jun 2010 12:20:00 GMT

Still in Germany

nele186 — Fri, 9 Apr 2010 18:20:00 GMT

So now, about 6 weeks before departure, I think I finally got all formalities done. Visa, Organization, flights, insurance: done Backpack: bought.

Things to do: buy working clothes, see the doctor, have a farewell party.

Goodbye and see you in Australia